Friday, October 28, 2016

You didn't think I'd let a holiday pass without doing some sort of nail art to commemorate it?!?

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These are my only Halloween nails I've done this year. I think it's because of my lack of stamping plates, or my obsession with fall manis, but this was all I did. It's cute and colorful so I like it, but man I've totally used these Halloween stamps before.

After waiting a minute or two for the microglitter to dry on the stamping head, then I stamped the image on my nail (over a layer of Midnight Mischief, which I already had painted on my nails). This stamper decal method is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I find it so much easier than using my UberChic mat, because I find decal placement and transfer to be my biggest issue.

Anyway I really liked how these turned out, especially the stripes. Sorry I didn't do more fun Halloween looks this year like I have in the past. But don't you worry, November is going to be FULL of fall colors and leaves manis!

Hope you all have fabulous Fridays, and have you entered my giveaway yet?!!?

Monday, October 24, 2016

Happy Monday everyone and I can tell you one thing, today really is a happy one! I'm sharing with you a super special custom polish and giving you a chance to win a bottle.

*Press Sample*

Today I'm sharing a very special polish I helped design with Mariah of Great Lakes Lacquer. We all know that the San Jose Sharks hockey is a big part of my life. After nearly wining it all last season I've been wanting to honor them and what better way to do that then with nail polish!!!

I asked Mariah to create the perfect Sharks teal polish (holo of course because it's me) and with golden flakies as an homage to the orange in their jersey (and because I just love that golden/teal combo). Let me just say, she completely nailed it and I am in absolute love!!! And because it's the Sharks and all, I named it Bleeding Teal!

So here it is, the beautiful Great Lakes Lacquer Bleeding Teal. It is a lovely blue leaning perfect San Jose Sharks teal linear holo filled with golden to bronze multichrome flakies that catch in indirect light. Opaque in two easy coats and I had no staining to report but always used base coat, as I always do with teal!

The Sharks started their new season this month, and my hubby and I have half season tickets so for the first game, I had to put together some nails art!

Using Sharks nail decals from Boston Nail Art and an accent of Painted Polish Venice Beach Babe, I did a simple nail art look to kick off the season. Believe me, I'll be breaking out Bleeding Teal all season long that if for sure!

And because Mariah is generous, and there was a post office mix up, I have two opportunities for you go win a bottle of Bleeding Teal. Mariah gave me a bottle of Bleeding Teal and the Polish Con Exclusive Fallen for Flake to give away, and I have an extra bottle to give away as well. Here's a shot of the stunner that is Fallen for Flake, in case you forgot what it looked like.

So just fill out the Rafflecopter (US only, sorry) below for your chance to win! And if you don't, the drawing will be before the polish goes on sale, you don't want to miss out on this special special polish! It will be available for the month of November at the Great Lakes Lacquer website!

Friday, October 14, 2016

I'm super excited to share three new polishes with you today! If you like grungy metallics, these polishes are definitely for you!

*Press Samples*

First up we have Literary Lacquers The Raven's Duo. After the success of Soul Within Me Burning from the inaugural Color Box, Jen Carter of xoxoJen and Amy (the genius behind Literary Lacquers) decided to make a few more polishes inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven. These will be available on Monday Oct. 17, but more on that later.

First up we have Literary Lacquers This Mystery Explore. This is a lovely smokey grey crelly packed with copper and orange holo microglitter and shimmer. This retails for $10.

"Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; –

'Tis the wind and nothing more!"

This polish as so much depth. It's like a copper party on my nail filled with all the reflections of the rainbow!

The second polish in this duo is Literary Lacquers Sweet Lenore. This is a bronze metallic linear holo with just a touch of orange. This was opaque in two easy coats as well, but was almost a one coater. This is like the more sophisticated bad girl sister to This Mystery Explore – metallic and holo, it's definitely a show stopper! This retails for $12.

These will release on October 17 at noon mountain time on the Literary Lacquers Etsy site. There will also be a slightly discounted trio with these two and Soul Within Me Burning (also inspired by The Raven and designed with xoxoJen but originally released with the inaugural Color Box) , shown above, as the Raven Trio for $32.50.

Next up we have a super special limited edition charity polish that I know you won't want to miss out on. First let's learn a little bit about the beneficiary of this charity polish.

With Type 1 Diabetes, every day can feel like a succession of needles. Each day is filled with finger pricks, blood tests and insulin injections.The Needle’s Bite, developed in collaboration between Literary Lacquers and Alex and Eli Bacon-Leslie, will raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A big fan of the “Newsflesh” series by Mira Grant, Eli Bacon-Leslie chose to name the polish “The Needle’s Bite” because of his experiences living with Type 1 Diabetes and endless days of needles and blood tests, something the characters in the book could empathize with. The characters in the “Newsflesh” series live in a world of constant needle pricks and blood tests, but in their case, the tests are for zombie amplification, not blood glucose.Each bottle of The Needle’s Bite will be sold for $13 and $5 from each bottle will be donated to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The polish will be sold from Oct. 17-Nov. 16.

This is Literary Lacquers The Needle's Bite. This is a beautifully vampy mysterious metallic gunmetal linear holo with an antique gold highlight shimmer. Opaque in two easy coats, could almost be a one coater. You guys, this polish is so beautiful and I have absolutely nothing like it my collection. The golden glow gives it a whole other dimension beyond the metallic. This polish makes my heart sing.

And the generosity of Amy also makes me feel so privileged to be able to work with someone with such a big heart.

So once again the duo and this limited edition charity polish will be available at 12 p.m. MT Monday Oct. 17 on the Literary Lacquers Etsy site. The Needle's Bite is a limited edition polish, available Oct. 17-Nov. 16 with a $5 donation from each bottle going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Hey everyone, happy Wednesday! If you follow me on IG, you know I've been head over heels for my UberChic Beauty Lovely Leaves plate. I created this super fun fall look using an image on that plate and I thought now was the perfect time to share it with you.

To start this manicure out I broke out two of my newest Dreamland Lacquers* to create a lovely fall-colored gradient. For the gradient I used Red Jamie and Sassenach, from Dreamland's Outlander Collection.

Part of the reason I thought it would be great to share this with you today is Dreamland Lacquer just restocked these beautiful colors, so now is the time to snatch them up if you haven't yet!

The polish I used to stamp is Kiko Melon, a color I purchased on my Northern European trip a few years ago. This isn't really a stamping polish, but over the gradient, it all sort of blends together perfectly!

In case you want a preview of what is being restocked at Dreamland Lacquer I have collage here and if you want to read my review, check out this post.

And her Halloween trio, wonderful microglitters they are, are also restocked. These are currently the only Halloween nail art I've done to date. I don't know what is wrong with me. Too smitten with fall to care much about Halloween I guess. That and I don't have great Halloween plates.

So I hope this reminder was handy for you. * These were originally sent to me as press samples.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Happy Monday everyone! I am so sorry I've been in and out on the blog. I'm still posting regularly in Facebook groups and on IG, but I only make time for blogging when I can and it's an arrangement I'm happy with and I hope you are too!

Anyway, today I have five gorgeous polishes from Fair Maiden Polish that have recently released. During their original release, Fair Maiden Polish had it's 10-polish Fall into Delirium Collection split into cool and warm colors, and I snagged a warm collection offering and boy am I glad I did. This collection has everything, great warm colors that remind me of the leaves changing color, a fun thermal, THE vamp of the season and just great bling all around.

First up we have the gorgeous Fair Maiden Polish Roaming Fire. This is a gorgeous red leaning orange holo polish with strong golden glow. Opaque in two coats, easy to apply. This polish is one of my favorites of this group and just screams fall. This super bright shade of orange is my favorite fall color and I can't wait to incorporate this in some falling leaves nail art soon! I'll share the one look I already did with this polish here!

This is Fair Maiden Polish The Road Less Traveled. This polish is a beautiful muted olive holo polish with a gorgeous violet shimmer. Opaque in two easy coats, is slightly more muted than my photos show. I looooove this polish, and I sort of feel like it's the underdog of this collection. As a green lover, I an confidently say I have nothing with this violet shift in my whole collection. A unique beauty for sure!

This gorgeous beauty is Fair Maiden Polish Waderlusting. This is a gorgeous glitter bomb filled with five different holographic pigments and glass flecks which give it a slight green shift. Also, super impressed that this was opaque in two easy coats, but it top coat hungry so you might want an extra coat. This polish isn't just your normal golden glitter bomb, the green shift in it is gorgeous. It's just begging to be paired with The Road Less Traveled.

This stunner is Fair Maiden Polish Shadow of Your Heart. Now we all know I am a fan of vampy holo polish and own a lot of it. This polish, while is similar in color to others, has this amazing metallic quality to it that other holos I own do not. It reminds me SO much of OPI Germanicure, but with a linear holo finish. So beautiful. This is a must-own, seriously, you cannot miss out on this if you like vampy polishes. This was also opaque in two easy coats.

*Warm*

*Transitioning to cold*

This is Fair Maiden Polish Acorns & Ashes. This is a gorgeous nude polish with strong golden glow that shifts to an olive green when exposed to the cold. Now being that it was 82 degrees today in California (c'mon fall, where the heck are you?!) I had to break out an ice pack for the shift and I do hope one day it might be cold enough for it to shift naturally on me! This polish was on the sheerer side and I used three coats, but there was still some visible nail line peeking through. I don't own many thermal polishes, but this one is beautiful either warm or cold. Definitely worth checking out!

Well that's it from me today! I hope you enjoyed these lovely polishes, do expect to see them in future nail art!!!